Infectious inflammations of the udder (cattle mastitis), which especially affect highly productive cattle, are the cause of considerable losses of milk. In addition, such inflammations frequently result in the premature slaughter of the animals if the mastitis becomes chronic with consequent limitation to three or even two productive teats (failing of individual udder quarters).
The recommended prophylaxis against infection is the dipping of the teats into an effective disinfecting solution after milking, which reduces the number of soil and disease organisms adhering to the skin of the teat, especially in the area of the teat openings. This method includes low-viscosity aqueous solutions that contain a relatively high concentration of active disinfectants to guarantee an adequate effectiveness. Since these substances are also skin irritants of varying intensity, the preparations usually contain skin-protecting substances. Preparations of this type are described, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,993,777 and Deutsche Tierarztliche Wochenschrift, Vol. 86 (1979), pages 85-88.
However, the above-mentioned teat dipping preparations are unsuited for the care of the udder since, in contrast to the teat skin, the udder skin is extremely sensitive to disinfectants and skin irritations are a common occurrence. For this reason, special milking fats and emulsions are available for udder care, which keep the skin of the udder supple and reduce the loss of moisture. Rough and cracked udder skin can also be treated with these to provide pain relief. These preparations are, however, unsuited for the prophylaxis of mastitis as they lack an adequate disinfectant action.